Can Ashley Wagner get that 3-3 to materialize and protect her spot at the top? Can Gracie Gold handle the expectation and become the undisputed #1 US lady? Will Agnes Zawadzki pull herself together and earn the scores she gets nationally on an international level? Will Christina Gao finally force those judges to take notice of her? Can Mirai Nagasu become a 2-time Olympian? Will Alissa Czisny make a successful comeback? Will any of the newer girls pull off the upset and nab a spot to Sochi?

All these questions and more, coming up in this 2013-2014 Olympic Season!!

Oh man, I am so ready for this season to start. I'm praying that one of my U.S. ladies will medal! I especially hope that Ashley can pull something off. I'll be the one with the Swagner sign at Skate America, haha

Since this is still in the trash can, I hope if people don't mind a discussion comparing the US top ladies' basic skating skills, in terms of their speed, flow, power, edges, (perhaps knee bend and posture?). Some of these skaters I've seen live but many I haven't.

In my totally uneducated eyes:
Gracie is top notch in speed and power, has good flow, but not so good in edging
Yasmin is good in edging, but lacks power
Ashley Cain is good in all categories.
Wang and Gao have decent flow and edges (I don't know about their speed though)
Ashley Wagner is good in speed, but has weaker edges than many top ladies

Haven't seen enough of Agnes, Courtney, Miller and Cesario live recently to tell how they stack up.

When I watched Mirai a few years ago, her skating skills stood out, though I haven't watched her for a while, so I can't say how she is now.

Since this is still in the trash can, I hope if people don't mind a discussion comparing the US top ladies' basic skating skills, in terms of their speed, flow, power, edges, (perhaps knee bend and posture?). Some of these skaters I've seen live but many I haven't.

In my totally uneducated eyes:
Gracie is top notch in speed and power, has good flow, but not so good in edging
Yasmin is good in edging, but lacks power
Ashley Cain is good in all categories.
Wang and Gao have decent flow and edges (I don't know about their speed though)
Ashley Wagner is good in speed, but has weaker edges than many top ladies

Haven't seen enough of Agnes, Courtney, Miller and Cesario live recently to tell how they stack up.

When I watched Mirai a few years ago, her skating skills stood out, though I haven't watched her for a while, so I can't say how she is now.

Click to expand...

You should give yourself more credit. Your assessment was dead on IMO.

Gracie is definitely all speed and power and in those areas she really stands out among the other girls. I didn't really get an appreciation for her speed and ice coverage until I saw the most recent video of her FS. That camera angle allows you to see the entire rink which gives you a better view of how she fills the rink . She has excellent speed and coverage, definitely an end to end skater. As for her edges they aren't great but they're not bad either...I'd say about average.

ITA about Yasmin. She has very nice, secure and smooth edges, some of the best in the US ladies field. Unfortunately due to her lack of presence, power and jumps, she does not stand out among the rest of the US ladies.

In my educated but not expert opinion...

To me, Agnes always appears to have nice speed and power across the ice. Her edges seem good but not great.

Courtney is fast and powerful with solid edges but there seems to be a slight lack security and control at times. She reminds me of Ashley before she went to John Nicks. Courtney states with a lot of energy but sometimes I feel like she needs to rein it in because she looks rushed and a bit frenetic.

Hannah and Samantha both seem to fall in the average/good range in both categories.

Mirai has nice edges and very good speed but her problem is she doesn't utilize it. Sometimes she'll start a program with a lot of speed but midway through she'll slow down. A lot of times that affects her jumps and it always lessens the impact of her skating.

I would love to have the opportunity to see some of these skaters live but unfortunately the competitions and shows do not come to my part of the country... and I'm way too broke to fly somewhere just to see skating.

Mirai did all the jumps better in the warmup. I would have said the 3/3 in warmup was clean or < at the very most. SP will be uploaded here. http://youtu.be/-pJPTTRin2A

Click to expand...

Thank you so much for the report/video!
Mirai has always been a sentimental favorite but I have to say she really looks great and fit this year
The music choice is just ok but there are some very nice moments in this program,especially the footwork section and the spreadeagle into the 2A.Happy to hear her jumps looked stronger in the warmup,hopefully with a little more mileage to her programs, they will look the same in the competitions!

I went back to watch Hicks at 2011 nationals. The girl has got good jumps and can also power through some nice edge changes. Give her the right packaging and she could be O team material. Perhaps she is right in moving on from jgp this year

You should give yourself more credit. Your assessment was dead on IMO.

Gracie is definitely all speed and power and in those areas she really stands out among the other girls. I didn't really get an appreciation for her speed and ice coverage until I saw the most recent video of her FS. That camera angle allows you to see the entire rink which gives you a better view of how she fills the rink . She has excellent speed and coverage, definitely an end to end skater. As for her edges they aren't great but they're not bad either...I'd say about average.

ITA about Yasmin. She has very nice, secure and smooth edges, some of the best in the US ladies field. Unfortunately due to her lack of presence, power and jumps, she does not stand out among the rest of the US ladies.

In my educated but not expert opinion...

To me, Agnes always appears to have nice speed and power across the ice. Her edges seem good but not great.

Courtney is fast and powerful with solid edges but there seems to be a slight lack security and control at times. She reminds me of Ashley before she went to John Nicks. Courtney states with a lot of energy but sometimes I feel like she needs to rein it in because she looks rushed and a bit frenetic.

Hannah and Samantha both seem to fall in the average/good range in both categories.

Mirai has nice edges and very good speed but her problem is she doesn't utilize it. Sometimes she'll start a program with a lot of speed but midway through she'll slow down. A lot of times that affects her jumps and it always lessens the impact of her skating.

I would love to have the opportunity to see some of these skaters live but unfortunately the competitions and shows do not come to my part of the country... and I'm way too broke to fly somewhere just to see skating.

Not sure where to put this, but is there any word why Vanessa Lam didn't compete at Glacier Falls? IMO this should have been a key competition for her assuming that she's gunning for a JGP. Hopefully she's not injured :-/

Vanessa Lam competed and won at Silicon Valley Open last weekend and put up a good combined score of 159.74 (no breakdown of SP & FS scores was provided in the results). Karen Chen won Junior at SVO but with "only" a combined total of 140.07 there (which shows she must be human after all ).

After these summer competitions I hope they wise up and give her a few assignments. She has very nice presentation and good technique on her jumps as well as beautiful artistry and expression. Karen would definitely be a standout on the JGP if they give her the assignments.

Mirai did all the jumps better in the warmup. I would have said the 3/3 in warmup was clean or < at the very most. SP will be uploaded here. http://youtu.be/-pJPTTRin2A

Click to expand...

Thank you for the video. I just watched it (again). Dang the girl frustrates me. She could be GREAT.
She has the musicality, the talent and the "it" that you are either born with or not. She also has the most beautiful hands and arms (except for the cocked wrist when she sometimes has her hands overhead) in figure skating. She just doesn't seem to have the heart, (Call it drive, internal pusher, whatever) to really take it and keep it at the top.